Politics & Power Quote by William Proxmire

Power is most seductive when it’s least visible, and Proxmire is warning that democracy’s real enemy isn’t always a strongman in daylight but a committee in a basement. The line works because it treats power not as a possession but as a behavior: something that “has to be kept in check” the way a fire has to be contained. It assumes drift. Institutions don’t wake up one morning and decide to become abusive; they accumulate permissions, carve out exceptions, and normalize the idea that certain decisions are too sensitive for public scrutiny.

The kicker is “doubly dangerous.” Proxmire isn’t just saying secrecy is bad. He’s pointing to the compounding effect when secrecy is paired with moral leverage. “National security” functions as a rhetorical force field: it doesn’t merely justify hidden action; it delegitimizes questions about it. Ask for oversight and you’re not a citizen doing due diligence, you’re a potential risk. That reversal is the subtext: the public’s right to know gets recast as the public’s obligation to trust.

As a mid-20th-century U.S. senator known for watchdog instincts (and skepticism toward waste and unaccountable bureaucracy), Proxmire was speaking into an era of expanding intelligence operations and Cold War justification. His intent is practical, not philosophical: oversight isn’t optional decor, it’s the only antidote to the self-reinforcing logic of secret power. Once the state can act invisibly and call inquiry “dangerous,” the checks stop checking.